Attachments

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

(En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron)

IFF Venice 2014 - Golden Lion

Švédsko, Nemecko, Nórsko, Francúzsko
201412+99min.

Theater Premiere:
03-05-2015

On DVD from:
01-01-2016

Comedy

Drama

"Brilliantly absurd story about humans lives."

Like modern times’ Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Sam and Jonathan, two travelling salesmen peddling novelty items, take us on a kaleidoscopic wandering through human destinies. A trip that shows us the beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humor and tragedy that is in us, life’s grandeur as well as frailty of humanity. With a panoramic view it is told by a bird reflecting on the human condition. The pigeon is astonished by the humans—their activities, follies, prides, and agitation, which he tries to make sense of and understand.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is the third film of Andersson’s trilogy about humans lives, in which the director creates a tension between the banal and the essential, the comic and the tragic—to show the dialectic and dynamic nature of existence, while shaping the thought that mankind is potentially heading towards apocalypse, but also that the outcome is in our hands.

Andersson’s Pigeon managed to amaze, move and left awe-struck the jury of the oldest international film festivals – Venice, and received the highest festival award – Golden Lion. Swedish master of comic absurdity, Roy Andersson is able to bring a humor in such painful subjects as mortality, aging, unpaid debts and unrequited love in his films.